Archive By Section - Columnists

John Oxendine and Roy Barnes have been consistent leaders in their respective primaries in the race for governor. With the July 20 primary only six weeks away, can they keep their leads and secure the nominations?

Barnes is the easy call right now in the Democratic primary. The former governor has maintained a strong lead in all the early polls, even if not so far ahead that he might win it on July 20. He also has been able to raise more money than any other candidate, Democratic or Republican.

It is from the Greek word "kakistos," meaning "worst" and "kratia," another Greek word meaning "power, rule, government." Put them all together and you have "a government under the control of a nation's worst or least-qualified citizens."

The World Cup is coming. It's possible you might not have noticed it here yet. The first games are still a week away and the US National Team doesn't play until next Saturday, but in some parts of the world... Wow! It is already consuming headlines. It's such a media buzz that, in those places, if you weren't aware of it, you were probably in a coma.

"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." Jesus said that. He said it on a day we call Maundy Thursday. He said that the day he handed himself over to the Jewish and Roman authorities. He said that the day before he died on that cross… for us. "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."

We'd have to agree, huh? There's nothing more one could give, right? I think of those soldiers willing to do just that, and I stop ...

My little boy is getting married. That, in and of itself, ought not to startle me. After all, he's 25 years old. By the time I was that age Louise and I had celebrated our fourth anniversary. But it gets me, I suppose, since Davis is the last of three babies God allowed us to raise here in this special place they'll always remember as "home."

I try hard not to live with regrets. It's not that I don't have plenty of poor decisions I could relive. It's just not a productive way to live one's life. I do have regret today about a choice I made Tuesday. Even if this does not make it to press, in writing it I am freeing my mind to focus on the future. My hope is that you as the reader will do the same. After all, none of us can change anything that has happened before today, but we can make choices today that ...

In my last article I broached the subject of life after death. I mentioned that everyone was going to spend eternity somewhere. That was a problem for some people. Let me explain.

Most people believe in heaven. Few people believe in hell. Many Christians don't even believe in hell. I have two questions for them. Why is it you choose to believe in heaven but not hell? The same Bible that teaches that there is an eternal heaven also teaches that there is an eternal place of judgment. Why do you choose to believe the one but not the ...

We are all saddened by the events of last weekend that resulted in the tragic loss of life of a young deputy sheriff, Brian Lamar Mahaffey. Death is never easy, but it is particularly hard when it comes suddenly and unexpectedly. Dr. Billy Graham, writes, "Christians are not immune to the fear of death. Death is not always 'a beautiful release,' but an enemy which separates. There is a certain mystery to it. It does not respect the young or the old, the good or the evil, the Christian or the heathen."

Last week, God's Word in First Peter 2 showed us that we are the Church, not a building, but a body of believers. But we only got part of the way through that text. Today, let's look at what that means. Today, let's look at how that changes your life. Peter writes this about you, the Church, the ones who see Jesus as the living Stone:

"You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into ...

Over here at Abiding Grace, we are building our church. It's a pretty exciting time. The walls are up. The roof is just about up. The utilities are going in. Finally. After all this time planning, preparing and permitting, praying and paying, we are building our church. Are you excited? You know, when we got together to talk about building our building, we said we wanted something that "looks like a church," right? …Something that people wouldn't get confused with an office building or someone's house. It was supposed to "look like a church." Have you seen ...

Jill Carrattini, managing editor for the Ravi Zacharias e-newsletter, "Slice of Infinity" writes, "one of the comments that I hear most often as a reason for rejecting Christianity is that of its followers: 'Christians are so hypocritical!' 'The problem I have with Christ is that his followers do him more harm than good.' 'I am continually disappointed by Christians; why should I consider their religion?' 'The problem I have with Christianity is Christians.' I can try appealing to these voices to see the gap in their logic; I can try reasoning that the abuse of a religion must never stand ...

There is a popular misconception among people in general and even among some Christians. The misconception held my many today is that the Scriptures we have today are not an accurate copy of the originals but were changed by a deceptive church in the 4th Century. This idea, popularized by Dan Brown in the "DaVinci Code," might lead to breath-holding, action-packed adventure but it is not good history. The Councils which codified our modern Bible were not secret meetings of the church but open discussion of the information available, and they did not "invent" the Bible, the simply recognized the ...

Last week, we looked at John 21:1-14 and marveled at what it meant for those disciples that Jesus appeared to them again after all their failures. Last week, we read in awe of how Jesus keeps coming to us in his word with his forgiveness even after all of our failures. Today, I want to explore that third appearance Jesus made to his disciples and see how all of the details of this appearance highlight just how awesome our Savior is. Let's look again at what it means that this guy in the text "is the Lord."

Happy Easter. Yes, we're still celebrating Easter. Let me tell you why that is so important. A couple weeks ago, we saw the angels telling those women at the tomb to "remember" what Jesus had said and "remember" what that meant. That week, my article probably used the word "remember" 20 times. Then, last week, the word was "believe" as Thomas got his doubts smashed by the absolute facts of the truth that Christ is risen.